Let’s dream a little. King Pelé is dead. And we want to imagine him juggling, smiling, feet in the clouds, or elsewhere, who knows, with Diego Maradona. The two have fun seeing these two other football idols who have marked the history of the game or their country, who were in their own way Johan Cruyff and George Best, tumble. The band of the fantastic four of a planetary sport, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, Ireland. They are so different, they probably wouldn’t have gotten along down here, in a locker room, but the joy, the fire, the tactics, the alcohol, mix where they are now in an extraterrestrial, almost childlike harmony. They were apart. They finally find themselves with the certainty of remaining so. And to be able to juggle all four for eternity. Without a god to watch them in the gallery since they are gods.
This is not the time to discuss which of the four had the most talent. The debate is too earthly for these stars, the controversy flush with these daisies they caressed with their golden shoes. But Pelé, all the same, will always remain the king. Neither Maradona, nor Cruyff, nor Best dispute him between two juggling this title. Why ? Simply because he was the first. The first to embody the globalization of football, its global audiences, its business. And that, unlike the other three, because he was the first, that all that remained too new, will have remained sheltered from these excesses. Pelé is the precursor that the financial, political and media excesses of football will not have had time to damage. His temperament, cautious, is probably also for something. But it is primarily to this virginity of the leader that Pelé owes his special status. Pele is a global virgin to turn to in trying to keep this fantastic sport going strong.